The annual general meeting of the Internationaler Controller Verein (ICV) is going to take place on 13 June at 17.30 o'clock in the Westin Grand Hotel in Munich. The points of the agenda are:

• reports of the ICV board, board of trustees, executive director and the auditors
• discussions on the reports
• distinctions
• election of the board and board of trustees members.

The ICV board and the board of trustees made election proposals; these have been sent to the ICV members together with the invitation to the general meeting.

On 28 April the ICV board held the second regular meeting by teleconference. Siegfried Gänßlen (ICV chairman), Prof. Dr. Heimo Losbichler (assistant ICV chairman), Conrad Günther (ICV managing director), Marcus Haegi, Dr. Walter Schmidt, Dr. Bernd Schwarze and Hans-Peter Sander (ICV press officer) as guest attended the teleconference. Dr. Adrianna Lewandowska was absent with valid excuse.

The board discussed about a series of operational tasks and took decisions regarding changes in the responsibilities of the board members. Thus in the future Dr. Adrianna Lewandowska will take over the internationalisation of the ICV and Dr. Bernd Schwarze will be responsible for the PR activities.

Zur weiteren Qualitätsverbesserung der ICV-Regionaltagungen sind Best Practice erarbeitet worden. Diese werden den Organisatoren von ICV-Regionaltagungen in persönlichen Gesprächen vorgestellt und sollen zudem allen Interessierten im geschützten Arbeitskreisleiter-Bereich der ICV-Website zugänglich gemacht werden.

Best Practices for improving the quality of the ICV regional conferences have been worked out. These are going to be presented to the organisers and uploaded at the ICV website under the section reserved exclusively for work group leaders.

A further topic of the teleconference was the preparation of the 35^th Controllers' Congress on 14-15 June in Munich. More than 400 participants have already registered and further 100 are expected to come.The board also discussed about the necessity of translating the congress into English. Taking into account the low number of persons interested in the simultaneous translation, the option will not be offered this year. The demand will continue to be monitored in the following years and if necessary a new decision will be taken.

As far as the PR activities are concerned, the board talked about working out "ICV case studies" in the future and the further development of the ICV website. Visible progress was done in this respect during the last weeks, especially with regard to the number and variety of latest topics. The board did suggestions for a better content traceability on the ICV website. The cooperation with the PR committee will be intensified.

The next board meeting will take place on 12 June, on the eve of the ICV general meeting. In the end the board members decided to dedicate their June meeting to questions regarding the practical implementation of the business plan by means of monitoring.

On 23 - 24 April in Moscow took place the 19^th symposium organised by the Russian Controllers' Association. Its chairman, Prof. Dr. Sergej Falko, invited Harald Kitzmann, the head of the ICV work group Estonia, and the ICV press officer, Hans-Peter Sander, to join the conference.

Numerous practical presentations offered the 50 participants an insight into the experience of different Russian companies with the implementation of planning and control systems. The presentations were followed by vivid discussions.

In the short presentation on the latest news from the ICV, Hans-Peter Sander also mentioned the results of the survey conducted in the ICV newsletter "Controller's e-News". The Russian colleagues were especially interested in the consequences of the economic crisis on the day-to-day work of controllers.

After the speech, the ICV press officer made Prof. Falko a present on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of his faculty of Business Administration (Moscow Baumann University): the first issue (1967) of the book "Profit Management" by Dr. Dr. h.c. Albrecht Deyhle, the German controlling pioneer, the founding father and honorary chairman of the ICV. Prof. Falko thanked for the book with the personal handwritten dedication from Dr. Deyhle.

600 guests are expected at the 35^th international Controllers' Congress on 14-15 June in Munich. The congress baring the motto "Intelligent Controlling: securing success, developing opportunities" focuses on issues relating to sustainable controlling in the context of the competing interests of managing innovation and costs. The host, the Internationaler Controller Verein (ICV) [International Controller Association] expects 600 managers and controllingexperts from home and abroad to attend the largest European controlling conference of 2010.

The key congress speakers include: Dr. Werner Brandt, Chief Financial Officer, SAP AG; Peter Gerber, CFO and CHRO, Lufthansa Cargo AG; Dr. Eric Strutz, CFO, Commerzbank AG; Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Péter Horváth, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Horváth AG and Head of the ICV Dream Factory; Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jürgen Weber, WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar, Chairman of the ICV Board of Trustees.

On the opening day of the 35^th Controllers' Congress (14 June/11.00 AM) the ICV's "Controller Prize" worth EUR 5,000 for "exemplary controlling solutions" will be awarded. The award speech will be given by the Chairman of the Jury, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jürgen Weber. The Congress traditionally devotes four specific subject areas to up-to-date topics of particular relevance. In 2010 these are the focal points in terms of content: "Successful liquidity management", "Innovative services controlling", "Intelligent cost management and social responsibility" and "Effective corporate controlling". Moreover, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Péter Horváth will provide impetus and present trends in controlling from the perspective of the ICV Dream Factory, which he heads.

Should we initiate innovation or reduce costs? - giving the debate a direction

"In many businesses there is a quandary about whether to invest in innovation or to reduce costs. This issue need sustainable answers.", explains Siegfried Gänßlen, CEO of Hansgrohe AG and Chairman of the Management Board of the host Internationaler Controller Verein. "Our Congress motto: ‘Intelligent Controlling: securing success, developing opportunities', gives the current debate a direction. If controlling, in its role as the ‘business conscience', is meant to secure the company's ability to survive on a sustainable basis, it must think in a forward-oriented way and provide innovative impetus. Intelligent controlling enables the management to take targeted decisions and gear up for action more rapidly, as well as discover new ways of tapping into growth and revenue potential - this is how controllers drive innovation forward."

35^th Controllers' Congress
Time/Place: 14-15 June 2010 in Munich
Event organiser: Internationaler Controller Verein eV (ICV)

Information & registration ICV office, Leutstettener Str. 2, 82131 Gauting bei München; Tel. ++49-(0)89-89 31 34 19; mailto:verein@controllerveren.de

www.controllerverein.com

On the 5^th of March the ICV board held for the first time a regular meeting by teleconference. Siegfried Gänßlen (ICV chairman), Prof. Dr. Heimo Losbichler (assistant ICV chairman), Conrad Günther (ICV managing director), Dr. Adrianna Lewandowska, Dr. Walter Schmidt and Hans-Peter Sander (ICV press officer) as guest attended the teleconference. Marcus Haegi and Dr. Bernd Schwarze were absent with valid excuse.

During the two hours of teleconferencing the board discussed and decided primarily about operative tasks. Here are the main decisions:

• In the run-up to the Controllers' Congress the board will discuss with the regional delegates representing the non-German-speaking countries about ways of improving the information flow.
• The successful banner advertising on the ICV website will be carried on. The homepage is exclusively reserved for advertisements for the Controller Prize, the Controllers' Congress and for regional conferences.
• A media plan for the presentation of monthly topics will be made.
• Two new statements will be presented on the occasion of the Controllers' Congress: "The communication ability of controllers" and "Communication controlling".
• The ICV board will discuss with the regional delegates further possibilities of improving the quality management of the work groups.
• In 2010 two new expert work groups will be founded: "Customer oriented price management" and "Working capital management". The board encourages the close collaboration between the leaders of the expert work groups and the organisers of regional conferences. Special conferences for the interchange of the expert work groups will be not organised.

In the future the ICV board will increasingly resort to teleconferences in order to discuss about operative issues. Thanks to the efficient progress of the board meeting on the 5th of March, the proper board meeting supposed to take place at the end of March could be cancelled. The next teleconference board meeting will take place in the middle of April. "I am glad that we put the proposal of organising a teleconference board meeting into practice" says Siegfried Gänßlen, the ICV chairman. "We could experience how efficient topics like the operative business can be handled by teleconference. This alternative allows the board to focus on strategic topics at the future "physical" meetings. Moreover the travel costs budget will be relieved and the expenditure of time will decrease."

CeBIT: Award for the "Quality Cockpit" by BMW

On the occasion of the IT exhibition CeBIT (2 - 6 March 2010, Hannover, Germany) BMW was awarded the Best-Practice-Award 2010 for the best Data-Warehouse- and Business-Intelligence-Solution.

The decision was taken by a jury made up of research and economic experts presided over by the independent software analysts company "Business Application Research Center" (BARC), to which also Prof. Dr. Andreas Seufert, head of the ICV expert work group "Business Intelligence" belongs.

The "Quality Cockpit" is a corporation-wide solution which allows the employees to monitor the complete process chain and to permanently examine the product and service quality. According to BARC, from the technical point of view the solution excels in the conflation of a great number of data sources and the use of standards for the development of dashboards and reports.

The survey "From Recession to Recovery" conducted by Towers Watson this year in January hints at a small rise in salaries in 2010 in European companies. The personnel programs focus on finding, developing and binding talents.

The economic crisis influences the HR management and the compensation systems worldwide. Half of the European companies interviewed expect the bonuses to decrease next year. As compared to Europe, all the U.S. American companies surveyed anticipate lower variable salary components. Most of the companies expect but low increases in salaries in 2010. European companies - except those which had to postpone raises in salaries in 2009 - reckon with a raise in salaries of about 2%. (USA: 2.8%)

Hard to bind talents
Binding and keeping top performers and talents continues to be a key topic in 2010 as well. Half of the European companies are of the opinion that this task will be more difficult than in 2009. This is especially due to the easing of the labour market. In spite of the economic upturn, 40% of the companies in Europe think that it is going to be just as difficult as before to bind high potentials.

Higher productivity
In spite of the round of dismissals during the last two years, the European companies managed to keep their productivity level constant. 54% of those polled even stated an increase in productivity during the last 12 months. 57% of the HR managers reckon with a further increasing net value added. Companies are more and more efficient. This could explain why the upturn is not reflected in the labour market.

The financial crisis spares the company pension schemes in Europe
As a consequence of the financial crisis and the wage cuts, a lot of companies worldwide reduced their contributions to the pension schemes. The European employees decreased their contributions to the pension schemes only in exceptional cases (by 1%). The situation among employers is very similar: almost 25% of the U.S. enterprises cut their contributions, whereas in Europe only 3% of the enterprises resorted to this.

About the survey
Towers Watson interviewed 131 HR managers from medium sized and large companies from Europe and 459 from all over the world.

Source
Haufe Verlag [Haufe Publishing House]

The Zurich private clinic Bethanien made public the appointment of Rainer Stelzer as managing director. Stelzer has been a committed member of the ICV for many years. At present he is leading the expert work group "Health care" in Switzerland and is a member of the ICV PR committee, which he headed for many years.

Rainer Stelzer, born in 1960, attended the Lausanne School of Hotel Management "Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne" and the Neuchâtel School of Commerce „Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Neuchâtel" and has a long experience in health care. Beforehand he was in charge of the operational management of the Swiss clinics St Raphael and Pyramide. Rainer Stelzer will take office on 1 March 2010.

The international economic and financial crisis did not spare Poland and Russia either. As a result, the salaries rose in 2009 only half as much as before the crisis and even less than in 2008. The share of the disbursed bonuses decreased by 50 per cent. The number of applicant increased, the salary requirements went down.

In a press release, Kienbaum - the German market leader in Executive Search and HR management - gives insights into the remuneration in Russia and Poland, shows how companies are dealing with surplus staff and where the job market is heading.

Read the Kienbaum press release.

For 2010 many German companies are planning to switch from pure restructuring to focusing on boosting efficiency. This is the finding of a joint study carried out by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and the Internationaler Controller Verein, which surveyed more than 50 CFOs and managers at manufacturing companies.

The focus of the survey was on the optimization levers companies plan to use in 2010. These levers cover the entire value chain. Thus, the "Operations Efficiency Radar" serves as a CFO decision-making tool for financial planning in 2010 and a discussion basis for coordinating with other departments. Next year, companies will be focusing on product portfolios, production, working capital management and innovation and development. The days of pure cutting costs are over.

Read the complete "Operations Efficiency Radar".

The ICV PR committee at its meeting on 17-18 January in Gauting. In the first row, from the left to the right: Dr. Herwig Friedag (head of the PR committee), Silke Neunzig (ICV office), Michael Spina (Austria). In the second row: Nicoleta Thomka (international Website), Brigitte Dienstl-Arnegger (ICV web editor), Katrin Kirsch-Brunkow (IT expert), Rainer Stelzer (Switzerland), Hans-Peter Sander (ICV press officer). Photo: Conrad Günther

The ICV PR committee meets twice a year to discuss the status quo of the running PR projects, to gather ideas for increasing the benefits of the ICV members and to decide on the next strategic steps to be taken.

A main topic on the agenda of the latest meeting was the budget cutback in line with the requirements of the ICV board. The necessary adjustments in this respect had been made. The ICV PR committee will continue the considerable improvements of the PR activities achieved in 2009:

• permanently up-to-date information at the ICV homepage
• increasing the number of pages dedicated to the ICV in the "Controller Magazin" from 3 to 10
• publishing a new issue of the "Controller Magazin" supplement "Controlling International" in September 2010.

The ICV website had 635.000 visits in 2009. There was a shift of the visits from the website to the weblog and to ControllingWiki; thus the ICV is following the trend of web 2.0.

In order to accelerate the internationalisation of the ICV, the PR committee is looking for "national press officers" meant to maintain the national ICV websites and to deliver articles on topics in their homelands to be published in the "Controller Magazin" as well as in the "International Controller's e-News".

A new section called "Members only" and containing offers exclusively for the ICV members will be set up on the ICV homepage.

Read the abridged report of the PR committee meeting on 17-18 January in Gauting.

It all began in 2008 on the occasion of the summer meeting of the ICV PR committee in Zürich. At that time the present leader of the committee, Dr. Herwig Friedag, was about to leave the PR committee. And then a brainstorming brought forth a new idea: the ICV should benefit from the possibilities offered by web 2.0. "We wanted to make the controllers' know-how available to everyone and to create a space for public discussions. There never is just one perfect solution for anything, but several ways leading to the same goal" says the management consultant from Berlin. Friedag was keen to create a wiki for controllers.

The ICV board was also enthusiastic about this idea and promised already in October 2008 to support the project - although the technical implementation, the continuous development and the upkeep of the wiki cost several thousands Euro. The project could start. The PR committee got in touch with different authors in order to collect relevant topics and interesting essays. We received confirmations for 169 articles. At the same time the technical preparations were done by the internet agency Qbus in Rostock.

The knowledge platform for controllers went live already in May 2009, less than one year later after its "birth". The special thing about the ControllingWiki is the fact that compared to the other wikis, this one has an advisory committee which checks the posted articles. The high quality articles receive the seal "ICV-approved version" which has been created especially for the ControllingWiki. In view of the high standards of this platform, this quality seal is important for both authors and readers. Thus, on the one hand anyone can contribute to ControllingWiki. On the other hand can the reader be sure of the fact, that the articles bearing the "ICV-approved version" seal are highly qualitative. Spam and not serious articles have no chance in the long run.

Read the entire article.